


Let's Go to the Mall

by betheflame



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 1980s, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Anal Sex, BAMF Pepper Potts, F/M, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Multi, Musicians, Oral Sex, Parent Bucky Barnes, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Steve Rogers, Shopping Malls, Songfic, Threesome - F/M/M, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:06:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23129770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: Once upon a time, Bucky, Pepper, and Tony were 80s popstars who sung in malls and had articles inTiger Beat. What happens when Tony wins a bet and convinces the other two to relive their glory days?
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Pepper Potts, James "Bucky" Barnes/Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Thor
Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1599898
Comments: 26
Kudos: 76
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A fill for Tony Stark Bingo (Adopted Square) and for MCU Poly Bingo (B2 "Song Fic") - thanks to Marie for cheering the outline!
> 
> ____  
> TSB Info:  
> Card: 3017  
> Square Filled: Adopted Square from Feb Party: 80s popstars  
> Pairing: Pepper/Tony/Bucky  
> Rating: E  
> Major Tags: AU - No Power, AU - Rock
> 
> Additional TSB Fills:  
> K4: Pepper Potts  
> T3: A Pairing You've Never Done

Intro: 1989, Freehold Raceway Mall

“James,” Pepper hissed. “Stop it.”

Bucky, who had no interest in stopping what he was doing, smiled against her skin. “Now, doll, you know I’m not gonna do that.”

“We have to be on stage in four minutes.”

“Yes, Pep, but we have four minutes,” he nibbled on her collarbone slightly, knowing that any mark he left there would be covered by the voluminous denim jacket that she would don for the performance. “I also notice you’re not yelling at Tony.”

“That’s because Tony is behaving himself,” a voice called from the adjoining dressing chamber.

“I don’t believe that for a...oh, your mouth, Buck...a second, Tony, I know you’re jerking off over there.”

“Which I will do faster if you let James do his job, sweetpea.” Tony’s voice could almost be classified as ‘bored’, but Pepper knew better. This was part of the game.

Virginia Potts, Anthony Stark, and James Barnes - or Pepper, Tony , and Bucky to their legion of fans - were the three hottest pop stars on the mall performance circuit. All picked out relative obscurity by mega producer Obidiah Stane, they were all _technically_ solo acts. However, they all performed on each other tracks, toured together, and were thought of in the public as a trio.

As their lives were intertwined from the age of 13 onwards, they were quite the trio in private as well.

Publicly, they were squeaky clean. Pepper was the All-American girl, complete with her signature strawberry blonde ponytail and bright smile, whereas Tony and Bucky were equal parts bad-boy and charm personified. While Tony sounded like a young Frank Sinatra, Bucky had a growl in his voice that only served to make his songs sound both flirty and filthy. Which, if Pepper was pressed, is largely how she’d describe Bucky in person, so it kind of fit.

“Three minutes,” she breathed out, as Bucky moved his mouth down to her nipple and laved his tongue over it. “And I need to do my lipstick.”

“I didn’t touch your lips,” Bucky replied, with a smirk in his voice. “I know the rules.”

“She’s panting,” Tony replied, panting himself. “Which means she’s licking her lips.”

“She’s right here,” Pepper howled slightly as Bucky’s finger found her clit and pushed at just the right angle. Not enough to get her off fully, but enough to feel both wonderful and frustrating and give her the nervous energy she needed to get through more interminable rendition of songs she hated.

“That’s it, doll,” Bucky crooned into her ear. “That’s it, just breathe. I love you, you’re so beautiful and you are walking out there as everyone’s dream, but you’re yours and ours and not theirs. I love you.”

She pressed their foreheads together as he played with her clit for a few more seconds before withdrawing his hand and licking her off his fingers. They heard Tony finish in the next cubicle - in the J.C. Penney men’s section they had been assigned to in this mall in the middle of New Jersey. There were handlers milling about, Pepper was sure, but no one was allowed in the dressing area without Bucky’s written permission. Things had gotten easier since they all turned 18.

“I love you, too,” Pepper kissed Bucky briefly - she was the only one allowed to break the “Don’t Fuck Up Pep’s Makeup” rule and often it was worth it. She put herself back together, and leaned over to check herself in the mirror. Jeans that were painted on? In place. Crop top that showed the stomach she starved herself to get? Check. Denim jacket with so many bedazzles that she almost fell over?

Such was the life of the 80s pop princess.

Jesus fuck, how she hated it.

* * *

Tony Stark loved four things in his life; music, technology, James Barnes, and Virginia Potts. You’ll note the absence of ‘parents’ on that list, for they did not belong there. At best, Tony tolerated his parents - society patrons who were furious at him for trying out for a boy band at the age of 11, only to become very proud of him when he landed the cover of Time Magazine for being the first teen idol to sell one million records.

So, no, ‘love’ is not what he felt for Maria and Howard.

He’d met Pepper first - they were originally paired as a brother-sister esque duo, but even at the age of 12 their chemistry prohibited it. They toured a little with another singer from Canada - a really fun woman named Robin Sparkles - but nothing was really taking off. Then, just after Tony’s 13th birthday, the label introduced them both to a new kid from Brooklyn who had a voice like a sex god and a smile that Tony would later refer to as his bisexual awakening.

Bucky’s ass didn’t hurt that process.

Soon, the three were inseparable both on stage and off. The friendship turned sexual much later, largely because Pepper’s public persona was so heavily crafted that any thing even hinting at ‘untoward’ could have toppled anything. But then, right around when she turned 17, the label asked if she would date Bucky publicly.

Tony, it appeared, would be perfectly cast as the public best friend who pined after Pepper, but loved both of his friends so much that he was simply happy for them. Entire columns in Tiger Beat were eventually dedicated to Tony’s pining - which would probably have gotten to Tony more if he didn’t know what the two of them sounded like when they came.

Somewhere in the middle of the pheromones and the pressure cooker that was their lives, they genuinely fell in love with each other. James’ best friend - a scrawny asshat with a heart of gold named Steve Rogers - got them in touch with some folks in a polyamory community ( _“Buck, how does Steve know these people?” “Pep, we don’t ask where Steve goes on his quests for justice. It’s safer for my anxiety that way.”_ ) and they learned there was a world already built to help them sort their feelings. The learned about safer sex practices and how to advocate for HIV/AIDS funding without making the record label notice. The day Bucky turned 18 (he was the first of them), he hired a new manager - a bulldog of a woman named Natasha Romanova - and renegotiated all of their contracts.

It was the late 1980s and their skin was only going to look adolescent for so long. This ride was going to end and they all wanted to be prepared.

And in the meantime? They planned on fucking in as many of America’s malls as possible, in as many combinations as their imaginations would allow. Today’s incarnation, where Tony got off on just the noises Buck and Pep made, was one of his favorites. He had a thing for sounds and rhythms and he loved how he knew by the tone of Pep’s whine just how close she was. He also loved knowing that she’d go out on that stage and sing about daisies and puppies and whatnot while she could probably still feel Bucky’s calloused thumb on her clit.

It was the little things in life.

* * *

“Babe,” Bucky breathed into Tony’s ear much later that evening, “can you shift your hips just a little?”

“Like this?”

“Perfect,” Bucky breathed as he kept up his rhythm in and out of his boyfriend, who was writhing so much that it was taking all of Bucky’s body weight to keep him still. They’d forgotten restraints on this trip - so Bucky was having to get creative.

“Okay, that’s sexy, but what the hell is that smell?”

Both men paused - a Herculean effort if you asked Bucky - and turned their heads towards their girlfriend, who had just emerged from the bathroom. “I can’t smell anything but Tony, baby.”

“It smells like feet,” she wrinkled her nose. “Anyway, are you two almost done? Dynasty is on soon.”

“I’m so sorry our lovemaking is interrupting your schedule,” Tony said drolly as Bucky started up again.

Pepper waved her hand. “Forgiven.”

Both men snorted but soon were moving again. Bucky reached around Tony’s body and grasped his dick, setting a rhythm with his hand that he matched with his own hips. Soon, both men were finished and covered in various bodily fluids and Pepper wordlessly pointed to the bathroom.

Which they both happily headed to, but not without lavishing Pepper with some attention as well. They settled into a quiet night - with Tony fiddling with an old radio he’d picked up at an antique shop that morning, and with Bucky and Pepper cuddling their way through the evening programming.

“I love you guys,” Bucky said during one commercial break.

“And?” Tony asked.

“Nothing, no and. Just saying it.”

“Because it sounds like there’s an ‘and’ and another shoe to drop or something,” Tony continued.

“No,” Bucky laughed. “I literally just love you both.”

Tony looked skeptical, but Pepper kissed his jaw gently and nuzzled herself back into her spot on his chest. He idly played with her hair and reflected on his life.

Bucky had always loved singing. He had one of those ears - he could just pick up anything he heard and turn it into music. Jingles, stuff from the radio, little diddies he and his sister would make up as they wandered the neighborhood as latchkey kids. He was doing the panhandling thing one afternoon in Red Hook when a guy asked if he took requests. Bucky told him that he’d do requests for a dollar and the guy fished a fiver out of his wallet and asked for something by Frankie Valli.

Thankfully, Stevie’s ma was a big Four Seasons fan, so Bucky knew “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” and earned himself five bucks and a business card for a talent scout. He wasn’t too sure he wanted to do the whole mall concert tour thing, but then he met Tony and Pep and he’d never wanted to know two people so quickly since he met Steve when they were four. Now they were all 20 and the past seven years had been both brutal and beautiful. The constant touring, the performing of their personhood and not just their music, the label interventions… but all of it had been buoyed by having each other.

“Hey, did you guys hear about this band out of Seattle?” Pepper said, seemingly out of nowhere. “Nirvana?”

Tony nodded, but didn’t look up from his radio. “The yelling ones. I got a tape from Obie.”

“Between them and New Kids, I’m not sure where we fit anymore,” Pepper mused.

“We fit for all the kids who can’t afford concert tickets, but still deserve live music,” Bucky said, parroting the label.

“Yeah, but for how long?” Pepper said softly. “What do we do when no one wants to go to the mall?”

“I dunno, Pep,” Bucky replied. “But I do know we’ll figure it out together.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which y'all find out more about the premise of this circus, learn that that America frustrates Thor, and kick off the modern part of our tale.

“Babe,” Thor boomed through the apartment, “it’s on!”

Steve came skidding around the corner and flopped onto the couch. “Marie’s in bed, and I’m pretty sure looking at or reading porn.”

“Well, healthy sexuality,” Thor waved his hand and Steve was thankful for the hundredth time that he married someone who hadn’t been raised in the American puritanical hangover when it came to sex. Their 15-year-old daughter was brilliant - kind, and generous, and passionate about climate change. They’d talked to her about safe, sane, consensual and they were pretty sure she’d come to them before she physically tried anything. She was getting a bit tied up with Bucky, Pepper, and Tony’’s oldest boy, but the men also knew their friends had been quite clear with Cormac as well.

“ _And we’re back_ ,” the late night host said from the TV screen and Thor and Steve sat at attention. “ _With us today is three people who covered a lot of bedroom walls between the years of 1983 and 1988. We know them as Tony, Pepper, and Bucky, and they’re back, folks! Launching a new tour in two months time, this time they’ll be out of malls and into concert venues and the whole run is basically sold out. Please welcome Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, and Bucky Barnes!_ ”

“Do you know what the official story is on why they’re doing this,” Steve asked.

Thor laughed. “No, but I can promise you that it’s not that Pepper lost a bet.”

About ten months before, the whole of their friend circle - who were really more family than friend, but who wanted to get technical - had been at Thor and Steve’s beach house. It was late, all the kids were in bed and the teenagers were lingering and the adults were either pleasantly tipsy or just lazy with sunburn. Spotify was on shuffle and everyone was singing along to songs they knew and skipping songs they didn’t.

Thor was controlling the phone at the time - he was playing a game where every third song on shuffle was left to play - and suddenly paused the music. The playlist had been ‘80’s’ and they’d sung to some old friends - Tiffany, Bon Jovi - and to some older frienemies - New Kids, Madonna.

_“Thor,” Bucky said from his position lazing against Pepper. “What the fuck, man?”_

_“The next song,” Thor said dramatically, “belongs to someone in this circle.”_

_“Ooooooo,” Carol and Nat intoned dramatically._

_“It’s gotta be Pep,” Tony responded quickly, taking a sip of his whiskey. “She’s got the most staying power.”_

_“But not because of my voice,” Pepper said and Bucky smacked her knee._

_“Stop it with the self-deprecating, doll,” Bucky said. “Your pipes are still the best outta all of us and you could work again tomorrow if you wanted.”_

_Nat, who still functioned as the manager for all three, nodded. “I could put you on tour next week and you’d sell out.”_

_“But only singing the old shit,” Pepper scoffed. Pepper had written and recorded enough music over the past ten years that she could fill at least four albums. But she hadn’t let anyone release it - she was too afraid it wouldn’t sell since it wasn’t pop. Pepper had taken a hard turn into Americana not long after she and Bucky got married, after a chance meeting with a singer named Natalie Maines had changed Pep’s sound forever._

_“I will bet you…” Tony trailed off, clearly thinking of something substantial, “I will bet you a vacation exclusively built on art museums that if we dropped something next month, the buzz would be enough to get you at least a 10-city club tour.” He looked at Nat for confirmation, who nodded._

_“I’m not even sure I want -”_

_Bucky twisted and put a finger on her lips. This was an old refrain. “Honey, no one is saying if you want to or not, although, to be frank, we know you do. What we’re arguing is the myth you’ve got that no one wants to hear from you.”_

_“Taking the bet, Potts?” Tony’s glare was warm and yet cutting. Everyone in the circle knew what was happening - Pepper was agreeing to change her life, she was agreeing to be brave, and to answer a question that had been in her mind since Cormac was born 16 years previous. Did she still have it?_

_“Taking the bet, Stark.”_

What had started that night exploded faster than any of them had planned. The music was all mixed and mastered and had just been sitting on hard drives for years, so it only took about a week to put together something to drop on iTunes. And once it did… The 10 city club tour took Pep around the South for most of October and completely sold out. The final performance, at a quiet little bar in Austin, included surprise performances by Bucky and Tony and the videos from that night had gone viral. Pretty soon, a 15 city reunion tour was in the works.

And then they started adding European dates.

And pretty soon, the quiet existence that Pepper, Bucky, and Tony had carved for themselves and their kids was but a distant memory.

And now, they were on Kimmel and the rest of the family was making plans to help co-parent.

“ _So_ ,” the host said jovily from the screen. “ _Everyone is dying to know what happened so that we get you back!_ ”

“If she says any story that involves our house and Tony being completely canned on Redbreast, I’ll eat my hat,” Steve muttered and Thor grinned.

“ _Well,_ ” on-screen Pepper smiled widely. _God, she’s stunning_ , Steve thought to himself. “ _I’m really glad to have dedicated the last twenty years to being an off-stage human instead of an on-stage one. Bucky and I have three children who deserved our full attention -_ ”

“Oh, we’re going with that lie still?” Thor muttered.

“You want them to explain being poly casually on a late night show? Also, not a lie. You’re being crass. Seth is as much Bucky’s as he is Tony’s and you know it.”

“I want them to be honest about how the family works,” Thor grunted. “There is no shame in multiple partners with enthusiastic consent.”

And this is when Steve was frustrated that he married someone who grew up outside of the U.S.

“Shh,” he scolded Thor instead.

“So now it’s just time?” Kimmel was saying.

Tony leaned forward. “ _We’ve been hearing this beautiful music for years, me and Buck and the rest of our friends. But Pep was a bit nervous none of you would like her new sound, but we just knew she was wrong. And isn’t she?_ ” He gestured to the crowd with that one, and got an enthusiastic response. Thor and Steve saw Tony kick his foot to touch Bucky, who in turn reached for Pepper’s hand and tapped his thumb three times, so Pep would know Tony was holding her, too.

“ _Yeah_ ,” Bucky grinned at his wife with a look that Steve knew would be gif’d and swooned over. Bucky Barnes at 40 was every inch the heartthrob he was at 20. “ _We talked to the kids, and to the rest of our family, and we all decided this was a good time to launch some new dreams. We’re lucky that our support system is massive to help care for our off stage stuff, and we are admittedly shocked that so many of you were ready to hear from us again._ ”

“ _Are you kidding?_ ” Kimmel laughed. “ _I don’t know anyone our age who didn’t see you guys at some point. My friends and I couldn’t afford concert tickets, but our moms would take us to the mall to see you all._ ”

“ _You were a fan, Jimmy?_ ” Pepper looked shocked.

“ _Pepper, forgive me, but you were absolutely hanging in the locker of every boy in my middle school._ ”

While Pepper blushed, Tony wiggled his eyebrows. “ _Is that what you kids called it?_ ”

The audience howled and Kimmel left it a beat before continuing. “ _But I think that was part of what was so potent about you three. There was something for everyone - fun music, gorgeous people, and you guys all seemed like you really liked each other and maybe we could be your friends, too_.”

“ _Well,_ ” Bucky jumped in. “ _We obviously did like each other, and we still do, and we hope you all still want to be our friends and come out to the tour dates._ ”

The interview continued and then they cut to commercial. When the show returned, Pep would be performing one of her new tracks that they’d mixed to put both Bucky and Tony on as backups. The show was pre-recorded, so everyone knew it went fine and that Pepper thought she was pitchy, and Bucky missed a moment in the bridge, but that no one would notice.

_WhatsApp: Framily Planning_

_Tony: We did a whole bit about Cormac learning the hammered dulcimer that they cut._

_Bucky: Which sucks, because that would be gold._

_Pepper: It does not, he does not need to be drooled over the way we were._

_Bucky: Babe, he is the most introverted kid on the planet._

_Carol: Except for Marie._

_… Thor is typing…_

_Carol: Which is why they’ve been so close their whole lives._

_Carol: It’s really cool they have each other._

_…. Steve is typing…_

_Bucky: Good save, Danvers._

_Nat: Can it, Barnes._

_Thor: The interview went well._

_Steve: He’s pissed you can’t be openly poly._

_Thor: I do not understand your country._

_Tony: Join the club, Big Guy._

_Bucky: Seth’s therapist asked us not to - said being 8 and having ADHD is hard enough without having the whole world decide who his “real” parents were. Wants to see how long this new burst of fame lasts and have time to work with Seth around it._

_Tony: The label doesn’t want us to, either._

_Bucky: Fuck the label. But not the therapist._

_Pepper: There are more lives than ours to consider. Thor, we get it, but you’re not helping._

_… Thor is typing…_

_Nat: I can handle the label. I’m pretty sure people already suspect. Seth sounds like Tony._

_Thor: You are correct, Virginia, and I apologize. I shall hold my tongue._

_Pepper: Thank you, Thor. We know how you feel and thanks for loving us and the kids enough that you want us to be free._

_Tony: That’s Pepper for ‘we agree with you but we can’t’_

_Thor: Understood._

_Steve: Marie wants to know if she can bring friends to the Bell House show. I told her to make us a list of 5 and we’d do what we could?_

_Nat: Perfect. Carol - will Rhodey be back for any of them?_

_Carol: I doubt it. He’s aiming for Bell House, since you’ll all be in Brooklyn, but until he gets this next promotion, we really have no control._

_Tony: We’ll record at least one just for him, tradition._

_Carol: He knows. And he’ll love reading this back whenever he gets a minute._

The conversation continued, but Thor grabbed Steve’s hand.

“Bed now,” Thor grunted.

“You gonna work out your frustrations on my dick, babe?”

“That is the current idea, yes, husband,” Thor confessed as he pulled Steve in for a kiss.

Steve laughed as he broke the kiss. He stood up and offered his hand, pulling Thor up from the couch. “No complaints here.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we see some parenting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and the next will have some discussion of body image issues - so be warned if that's a thing for you.

“Dad?”

Bucky looked up from the soundboard he’d been peering at for the last thirty minutes as though it would hold the secrets to the universe. “Yeah, sweetheart?”

His 12-year-old daughter, Annabeth, was standing in the doorway to the family studio. “Do you have a minute?”

“For you? I have hours,” Bucky grinned and patted the chair next to him. She took her seat and began fiddling with the controls. _Ah, so this is a serious talk, then._

He let her hold the silence for a little bit. Anna was their quiet child - even before she had been the middle - and the most like Pepper. She’d hold all of their pain and tension within her own skin before she’d even consider engaging with her own and Anna was a large part of why Pepper took so long to release any music.

_“How is it fair to my child to put her in a position to be in pain?” Pepper lamented one evening._

_“There is,” Tony replied, from his position beside her in bed, “the argument that she has to learn to process the pain and not hold it, but I’m the parent who encourages their self-destruction so don’t listen to me.”_

_Pepper swatted at him and Bucky growled from behind him. “Listen, you idiot -”_

_“I’m just saying,” Tony interrupted before it became A Thing. “Anyway, we have built her the best support network that money and friendship can buy. Maybe we take it out for a spin.”_

Bucky was just about to go back to mixing the demo he’d fucked around with that morning when Anna spoke.

“The boys at school are gross about Mom.”

Bucky bit back a chuckle. “The boys at my school were gross about Mom, too.”

She peered at him. “You didn’t go to school.”

“I did before I joined Mom and Papa on the tour,” Bucky said. “And I was one of the gross boys, I’m sorry to say, who saw her body and not her.”

Anna looked scandalized. “But you love her.”

“More than the breath in my own body,” Bucky affirmed. “But not when I was 12. When I was 12, your mom was literally everything society told us was beautiful. She was tall and thin and had long hair and a big smile and boys are really fucking gross, kiddo, I wish we weren’t, but this is not the time to sugar coat things for you.”

Anna was quiet. “When did you love her and not her body?”

“Within about four minutes of meeting her,” Bucky smiled. “And then I wanted to crawl back to Masapeak Middle School and rip every picture of her out of every locker and beat up my past self.”

“When did you start loving Papa?”

“Well, dollface,” Bucky sighed, “that took a bit longer, but you know that story. So, ask what you really came to ask.”

Anna was quiet for another few minutes until she finally whispered, “is Mama gonna be okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“Mama told me her least favorite part about being famous was that she could never eat anything she wanted to and that’s why she has so many troubles with food,” Anna said slowly.

Part of the ‘Prepare The Children’ process was that Pepper had taken Anna on a rather painful trip down tabloid memory lane. She wanted Anna to see what the papers would say about her mom while her very healthy and happy mom was sitting right next to her.

“But she was never sick, sweetheart, remember that. Those were just lies the papers used because those papers make money on being cruel,” Bucky said gently.

“I know,” Anna nodded. “Mama said that’s why she’s worked with eating disorder charities my whole life, because of the stigma and the shame and how it’s even harder on girls now with the internet and…”

Anna trailed off and all the reasons Bucky thought she was there vanished. Something told him this wasn’t about Pepper.

“But I’m not shaped like Mama,” Anna said, her voice small. “What if I make this all harder for her because I’m so fat?”

Anna had gotten her genes from the Barnes side of the family, which meant that her hips were wider and her belly curvier than anyone with Potts gene. This had been a constant conversation between the parents and Anna since Anna first got called ‘fat’ as a bad word when she was 8. Children are terrible.

“I think we maybe need to call Mama to come and join us,” Bucky said gently, “would you be okay with that?”

Anna shook her head. “I came to you because I don’t want to hurt Mama with -”

“Okay, I’m going to use a Dad override,” Bucky said, “because I think you need to hear some things from your mom right now, but how about I ask her to come down here in 10 mins and you and I can talk some stuff through first?”

Anna agreed to that and Bucky picked up the phone.

_WhatsApp: ParentChannel_

_Bucky: Anna’s having a moment. Pep, can you come to the studio in 10 and Tony can you distract the boys?_

_Tony: What’s up?_

_Bucky: She’s about two breaths from calling herself a huffalump again._

_Tony: Jesus fuck who said something i will kill them_

_Bucky: Call’s coming from inside the house on this one - her own brain is the enemy_

_Pepper: I’m setting a timer and I’ll be there in 10._

Bucky pocketed his phone and turned his full attention back to Anna. “Few things. One, what have we said about ‘fat’ not being a bad word?”

“It feels like one.” Anna’s voice was small and quivery.

“And that’s a …”

“Feeling not a fact.”

“Correct,” he said gently.

She fiddled with her fingers and whispered, “I’m afraid I’m going to embarrass you guys. Like, what if someone from school sends a picture of me to the tabloids or something and they can see that I don’t look anything like the rest of you and it’s all so much and…”

Bucky let her spin herself out - she continued for a few more minutes - and then he smiled gently while his heart was breaking in half. “You finished, sweetheart? Can I talk now?”

Anna nodded without looking at him.

“First of all, you look like my entire family, so there is no doubt that you’re one of us. You have Aunt Becca’s hips and my nose and the untamable Barnes curls and you are a Barnes. For all your sins. But, you’re also a Potts and a Stark and that means you’re kind, and smart, and a great sister to your ridiculous brothers, and Marie’s favorite cousin, and Aunt Becca’s favorite niece -”

“I’m Aunt Becca’s only niece,” Anna grumbled.

“Point stands,” Bucky smiled. “You’re her favorite. Your doctors are fine with how you’re shaped. Does your mom wish you ate more wheatgrass? Sure, but she wishes that for me, too, and you and I both know I don’t love her enough for that.”

Anna’s mouth quirked into a grin, but it disappeared just as quickly.

“Annabannana,” Bucky broke out the name only he used for her and moved his chair so that he could hold her face. “I’m going to level with you. Your mom’s body is a product of some really specific genes and a lot of years of not having a good relationship with food. Yours is a little, too, and we all know it, because I’m the same way. We eat our feelings a little, us Barneses, and you having a garbage disposal for a Papa did not help matters. If you would like to work on your relationship with food, I’ll do it right along with you because I can always use help.”

“You would?”

“Of course,” Bucky nodded. “As long as you promise me that you’ll keep working on not using fat as a bad word - because it’s not - and that you’ll remind yourself that you are not your body in the same way that your mom isn’t hers.”

Anna nodded. “I’ll try.”

“That’s all I can ask, Banana Bean.”

Anna giggled. “You’re stealing Papa’s silly nickname.”

“Well,” Bucky grinned, “I’ve loved your Papa for a long time, even if he wasn’t your Papa for a little bit. Logic says he’d rub off on me.”

“Tell me again how that happened,” Anna replied. “Distract me a bit ‘till Mama gets here.”

Bucky nodded. “Well, Mama and I got married pretty quick after we stopped touring. April 22, 1990 after a lot of conversations with your papa. The three of us had been together as the three of us for years at that point, but Papa was really scared of marriage and settling down and all of that. Really, he was afraid that coming out to the world as polyamorous, when we were all still kinda famous, would ruin your mama’s life - and we couldn’t convince him otherwise.”

“But you’re still not out,” Anna clarified.

“Well, Tony was kinda right,” Bucky admitted, “and Pep and I were pretty naive and just figured we could trade love for fame and it would be okay. But your papa was raised in a family business and he understood things like savings accounts and financial planning and some other things Pep and I didn’t.”

 _Now_ , Bucky thought to himself, _if Tony had said any of those things instead of trying to blow us off with the ‘I’m too young to settle down’ bollocks, we woulda saved ourselves a lot of pain._

“And then you had me,” Anna smiled.

“And then we had you,” Bucky confirmed. “And your papa was so in love with you he basically refused to move out. Cormac didn't hurt either. And so we had more conversations and the world was a little different at that point and so this is what our family looks like now.”

“Hey,” Pepper said from the door, “is this a good time?”

Bucky gestured to his wife. “Yeah, babe, me and Anna were just talking about some of what might happen when we all go public again.”

“Like what,” Pepper asked quietly as she sat down in an empty chair.

“Like how I look different than you,” Anna said quietly.

Bucky cut a look over to Pepper and saw a slash of pain cross her face. He reached for her hand and squeezed gently.

“You mean how you’re beautiful?”

“Mama,” Anna groaned.

“Pep,” Bucky said, with a note of caution he hoped she heeded.

She did.

“What’s your head telling you?” Pepper brushed some hair out of Anna’s face.

“That if the internet finds out that your daughter looks like me, it’ll be pretty nasty,” Anna replied in a small voice.

“They might be, yeah,” Pepper affirmed. “But they don’t matter.”

“But they do, Mama, they could ruin your career!”

“Oh, hey now,” Pepper corrected. “My career already happened and my job now is to be your mom and all I’m doing right now is picking up a side hustle for a little bit, that’s all.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “You are too old to say ‘side hustle’, Mama.”

“Yeah, Mama, too old,” Bucky grinned at her.

Pepper swatted both of them and continued. “If you want me to pull out right now, I will, but you have to give me three reasons that have nothing to do with lies.”

“Lies?”

“I will not stop this whole thing - which is providing employment to a lot of people and joy to a lot of others - because of a lie you believe about yourself that we can work on as a family,” Pepper said firmly. “Because here’s what I’ve learned about the media and bodies - they have no right to them, but they’ll take ownership anyway. So we can’t give them any more power than they’ll already claim.

“Also,” Pepper continued, “I know you’re worried about me and how this will all affect me and Papa and Dad and I love that, but sweetheart, you can’t do that either. The world will react how it reacts and I promise you that we can do nothing about it but be our best.”

Anna was quiet for a minute before she spoke. “So, by believing them instead of believing you and Dad and Papa, that’s giving them power.”

Pepper nodded. “I know you can’t believe yourself, I know that’s impossible some days, baby, and I’d never lie to you and say that it’s not. But on those days, you gotta trust me and Dad and Papa and Uncle Steve and Aunt Becca and the whole family and not the idiots on Tik Tok, okay?”

Anna nodded. “Today’s not a good day.”

Bucky felt his heart shatter but kept his mouth shut.

“Okay, what can make it a good day?” Pepper asked.

“Can we go get our nails done? Just you and me?”

Pepper grinned big and turned to Bucky. “I think the boys can handle themselves for a few hours, eh?”

Bucky kissed both of the women in his life on their foreheads and gestured for them to leave the studio. “Cormac’s with Marie and I think Seth and Tony are together anyway. I have to finish this mix, but you ladies go have fun. We’ll see you whenever you get home.”

“I love you, Dad,” Anna gave him a quick hug. “Thanks.”

“Anytime, Banana Bread,” he smiled and kissed her cheek. As Pepper and Anna made their way back up the stairs, Bucky grabbed his phone.

_WhatsApp: BoyBaes_

_Bucky: Pep’s gonna take her on a mom/daughter date. I think that’ll help_

_Tony: I’m worried_

_Bucky: You worry the sun is going to come up_

_Tony: No, I *prepare* for if the sun doesn’t come up_

_Bucky: You can’t prepare for the kids, baby, we’ve been over this_

_Tony: I just want to protect them from everything_

_Bucky: no, you don’t_

_Tony: fuck you_

_Bucky: As long as Seth’s occupied…_

_Bucky: Babe, they have to learn from their pain like we did. We’ve been over this. Mother henning doesn’t actually help them. I know Annabeth’s your special precious, but she’s gotta survive this world._

_Tony: don’t make it creepy - id ont have a fetish about her_

_Bucky: Sorry, that came out wrong_

_Bucky: Seriously, is seth occupied? I’ll make it up to you._

_Tony: studio?_

_Bucky: yup_

_Tony: omw_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time in our weird story that keeps falling out of my brain: Bucky and Tony let Pepper know exactly how they feel about her 40-year-old body when she tries to get into her 20-year-old clothing.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Pepper finds some old tour clothes and has feelings about them. Bucky and Tony do as well, and demonstrate to her just how they feel about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chap with some body image issues. Mind yourselves, chickens.

Pepper stared at the garment bag full of her tour clothes. “Okay, you bitches, let’s see -”

“There is no way you are doing what I think you’re doing,” Bucky’s voice sounded from over her shoulder.

“Yes I am,” she replied, not taking her eyes off the vacuum sealed denim.

“Why, doll?”

“Because I have to see,” she said with steel in her voice.

“But why?” He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, cradling the parts of her body he knew had changed since she last donned the garments. Parts that had gotten stronger, parts that had been changed so life could happen, parts that she still struggled to come to terms with.

He thinks he’s so stealthy, she internally rolled her eyes as his fingers teased the waistband of her shorts and wandered slightly inside them.

“Because…” her voice trailed off.

“You hated being that girl, Pep,” Bucky whispered into her ear. “You hated who they made you when you wore those clothes, why are we doing this now?”

She collapsed slightly into him. “Because I needed to prove that I still have it.”

“Still have what?”

Pepper knew she had two choices. She could set her jaw, tell him to fuck off, and squeeze herself into the size 2 jeans she knew wouldn’t fit. Or, she could let his hands keep wandering, trust that their children were occupied, and let her husband remind her of why she should love and respect her body.

If she was honest, she went with door number two because she was horny, and giving in to that urge felt like more fun than being a masochist.

She twisted in his arms and saw Tony enter the room. “Oh, both of you?”

Tony smirked at her, as she felt Bucky tighten his grip. “You said you were ‘going over wardrobe choices’ and then headed for the closest where the old shit is kept. Twenty years, we’ve been together, Potts, you think we didn’t know what you were gonna do?”

She blushed slightly. Sometimes she did, in fact, forget how these men know her and love her so deeply that they’ll fight for her when she wouldn’t fight for herself.

“We had a feeling,” Bucky continued, “that you needed to be reminded that our favorite version of Pepper is this one.”

“Plus,” Tony moved so he was right at Bucky’s back, and gripped Bucky’s ear with his teeth quickly, causing the other man to groan, “the kids are all at other people’s houses and wasting that feels like we’d be rude to the universe.”

“Heaven forbid,” Pepper snorted. Bucky grinned and kissed her, cupping her ass as he did. She leaned into the kiss, letting her whole body come into contact with his, relishing in the comfort that came with the desire.

“Come on, you two,” Tony beckoned and grabbed their hands. “Our bed is so close and so much more comfortable than the floor of this closet.”

“He has a point, doll,” Bucky grinned and Pepper let out a shriek as he pulled her so quickly that she tripped over her own feet. The trio made their way to their bedroom, laughing along the way as Bucky pinned Tony against the wall outside Seth’s room and kissed him, causing Pepper to lean against the railing and watch, while lazily fondling her left breast.

When Tony tore away from Bucky and noticed what she was doing, he moved her hand and replaced it with his mouth, licking through the fabric of both her shirt and bra.

“Tones, pause,” Bucky breathed as he reached under Pepper’s shirt to pull it up over her head. Soon, both men were nibbling and laving their tongues and she swatted half heartedly at their heads.

“Bed,” she breathed. “Someone needs to be in me quickly.”

“Just a generic someone?” Bucky replied as they made their way - finally - into their room.

“Flip for it,” Pepper said as she pulled down her pants and crawled into the middle of the California King bed. “I’d prefer one of you two, but if Idris Elba is available -”

“Can’t blame her,” Tony shrugged at Bucky, “but since we’re here…”

“Are you ready ready?” Bucky asked Pepper, his hands dipping between her legs. “Oh, you are.”

“Like I said, someone in me and quickly,” Pepper breathed. “Chop chop, boys.”

Pepper could see a look pass between the two of them and she knew they were on to her. This ‘distract them with sex so they won’t be nice to her’ was something she used to get away with easily. Bucky would compliment her and then she’d change the subject by giving him a hand job or Tony would call her sexy and she’d start kissing him and running her hands through his hair in that way that he liked. Pepper had always had a high sex drive - one of the reasons a poly relationship worked for her so well - and a low tolerance for compliments.

But her post-partum with Seth had been rough and they’d all ended up in couples counseling and Tony had put some pieces together.

 _Well, fuck,_ she thought. _Now we have to talk._

“Honey,” Tony said, with a gentle tone in his voice.

“No,” she growled. “NO.”

At this point, they’d both stripped down completely, so she had both her husbands - one by law and both by covenant - kneeling over her on their bed and yet …

“I don’t like my body today, okay?” She hissed. “I don’t love that I jiggle when I walk and I don’t love that I have stretch marks and I get all the strength it has and blah blah blah, but right now? In this moment? I don’t need you guys to tell me you love me, I need you to show me via your tongues, fingers, and dicks. We can work through my crippling body concept after I’ve had _at least_ two orgasms.”

Bucky pursed his lips in the way she knew he was holding back a grin. “Yes, ma’am.” He crawled on top of her and kissed her long and hard. She could feel his erection rocking into her vagina - teasing the nerve endings, but not satisfying anything. He soon moved his mouth from hers and nibbled his way down her body, licking and sucking as he did.

As his tongue lapped around her clit, she arched her back and found that Tony had crawled in next to her. “Where do you want me, gorgeous?”

God, I must seem messy if Tony’s asking for direction, she thought briefly, before Bucky moved his tongue at just the right rhythm and she temporarily whited out. “I’m good,” she finally breathed, “take care of Buck.”

“Are you close, doll?” Bucky lifted his head briefly to ask and she moaned a yes in response. “Then, let me finish here, baby,” he addressed Tony. “We’ll all get our turns.”

And so it was for the next half hour. While Pepper was sated, temporarily, Tony ate Bucky out, who jerked himself to completion. Then Pepper took care of Tony, while Bucky prepped himself because Pep had offered the strap-on. In typical them fashion, cries of “ _yes, please right there_ ” were mixed with “ _did anyone check the mail today_ ” and “ _Tony, not now_ ” and “ _Pep, can you move just a little faster_ ” and “ _oh fuck you are so sexy._ ”

Later, after everyone was cleaned up, and the phones had all been checked in case children or caregivers had raised an alarm, they were settled back in bed.

“Pep,” Bucky said softly, “I’m going to say my piece, okay?”

“You don’t have to,” she sighed, “I know what you’re going to say.”

“Of course you do,” Tony replied, “because you’re a brilliant woman and we’ve all done this before, but let us say it again?”

She grumbled an assent.

“You get to feel however you want and you know that,” Bucky said. “But what’s not healthy for you is to park yourself in the past, where you weren’t happy anyway. And you know that, and so if today is a blip, then that’s fine. But if it’s not and you feel yourself going somewhere else, we want to know.”

 _Well, I was ready for more of a lecture,_ she thought.

“The Virginia Potts who started out at 12 is not the Pepper who married Bucky or the one who dragged me into communal family kicking and screaming through my petty abandonment issues,” Tony remarked, “and that’s good. The point of growing up - as you so often tell our kids, is to be different than who you were.”

“So, you’re a size 8 instead of a 2,” Bucky said, “and your breasts are a C instead of an A.”

“You still come when I put my thumb in the right place,” Tony kissed her neck, “and you still moan when Bucky rubs your feet, and your smile still sends both off us to our knees. You’re still our Pepper, our beautiful, wise, sharp as nails Pepper, and I don’t care if you’re in denim from 1985 or the sweatpants you peeled off a while ago - the public is ready to hear from you again.”

“And remember too, doll,” Bucky said, “it is a bit of a different world. Are people still terrible? Completely, but remember what Frankie said.”

“If you start thinking of yourself as a commodity, then you’ll act like one,” Pepper recited the wisdom she’d gotten from her fellow artist. “If you act like an artist, they’ll treat you like one.”

“You are an artist, babe,” Tony whispered. “And on the days you can’t remember that, we’ve got you.”

“Besides,” Bucky said, “we haven’t touched my fear of my voice sounding so different that I’m going to get mocked on SNL or Tony’s inability to stay off Instagram could get us in trouble if he livestreams the wrong thing. We’re all messes here, just in different ways.”

“But that’s the point of us,” she said, finally finding her voice. “We’re messes about different things at different times.”

Both men agreed. Tony opened his mouth to speak again when Pepper’s phone went off.

 _“Incoming call from Nat,”_ Siri’s voice rang out through the room.

“Speaking of being an artist,” Pepper chuckled and rolled over Tony to grab her phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll see you next time for some found family fluff as they all prepare to head out on the road. Until then, let me know what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

“Ten million dollars,” Pepper breathed as she flipped through the paperwork. “Our little bet netted ten million dollars.”

Bucky quickly glanced over at her from his place in their dressing room and hit pause on the Xbox. “Those the full returns?”

“Just for this first half. Gross profit was 10.2, and projections for Phase Two are upwards of thirty since we’re doing larger venus,” Pepper confirmed, eyes on the papers. “You make your charity decision yet?”

“Feeding America,” Bucky said, as he got up and stood behind her. He raked his hands through her hair and she leaned back into him. “And Tony found that school in Iowa, I think -”

“Indiana.”

“Indiana,” he corrected himself, “that needs the full music program funding and I think that’s what he wants to do. You?”

“UrbanPromise,” she said. She put down the papers and twisted slightly to look up at him. “They provide food, and mentoring, and education to kids without a safety net all around the world. I talked to the ED a few days ago and I think it would also be perfect for Anna and I to go for a service trip.”

The family had made a decision that the personal profits netted by each of them would go to charity. Thanks to careful investing throughout the years, they didn’t need the money, so the 2.4 the three of them were individually getting after taxes, promoter fees, staff payroll, and Nat’s well deserved bonus for keeping them all on track, was getting divided into three charities close to their hearts.

“Sounds perfect,” Bucky grinned at her and returned to managing his farm in Stardew Valley.

About ten minutes later, Nat and Tony arrived with dinner and a reminder that the VIP meet and greet started in thirty minutes, and Pepper changed out of her sweatpants and into the jumpsuit that was her tour costume for the opening set. It was their last night and they’d decided to be cheesy and ridiculous and pay homage to their roots - which is why their closing night was at the Mall of America.

A stage had been constructed and a lottery system for tickets had been run. There were quite a few superfans - Pepper hadn’t remembered until this tour that they’d had dolls made of them - and a lot of groups of friends who had used the concerts as excuses for a reunion. They’d heard stories of how their old music got people through terrible adolescent traumas and how some of the new stuff was helping with parenting woes. Pepper left each VIP meet and greet more energized and humbled than she’d ever anticipated.

_“Chemo, Buck, she has all my remastered stuff and she’s listening through chemo,” Pepper marveled one night after a show at Union Transfer in Philly._

_“My favorite part,” he replied, “was that some of her nurses remembered the dances.”_

_She chuckled, a slightly wet sound that came from the tears gathering in her throat. “I forgot what this life could be.”_

_“We never got to see this side, doll.” Bucky kissed the top of her forehead. “This wasn’t how we talked about music when we were starting, and certainly not our music. We were firmly guilty pleasures and that’s all we were allowed to be.”_

_“And now?”_

_“And now people are saying fuck guilty pleasures,” Tony interrupted from his section of the tangled limbs. “And as I fuck mine each night, I couldn’t agree more.”_

The concerts were ostensibly structured that Bucky and Tony opened for Pepper - a bit of a comedy act full of old tracks that they’d come up with since neither of them had new stuff to debut the way Pepper did - but tonight was going to be a massive surprise for everyone. They’d seen the fan pages, charting all of their set lists, and the jokes they told, and the YouTube clips of the stories. Nat had told them that everyone was anticipating the same thing tonight.

Which was kind of a shame, since that’s not what they were getting.

Instead, the trio were using this to announce that they were officially joining forces into a new band, and were debuting some new music tonight. Two tracks that Bucky had written with Sheeran, a few that Tony had produced with Jessie J, and then a super fun one that all three of them had created during a _ridiculously_ fun weekend with Kelly Clarkson - they were figuring out how to transition from mall pop to something that fit them, the market, and their voices better. Combined with Pepper’s growing roots in rockabilly Americana, and their sound was evolutionarily new and entirely theirs.

They were calling the group Freehold, since the Freehold Raceway Mall in New Jersey was actually the first place they ever performed together. Their kids thought it was cheesy, Carol and Rhodey rolled their eyes, Steve teared up, and Thor looked confused - which meant it was perfect.

Around 7:45, their dressing room was cleared and they had ten minutes to themselves before it was time for places. Tony reached for Bucky and Pepper’s hands and drew them into a circle in what had become a nightly ritual.

“I love you both,” Tony said, voice clear and confident. “I love you more than anything we’re about to do, but I love it and you even more that we get to do it together.”

“Whatever happens out there,” Bucky replied, “what matters most is that we have fun and make memories for people.”

“Are you two sure we should do Watery Whiskey?”

“Yes,” both men said in unison. Pepper had finished it that weekend and was nervous about debuting it, but the entire band was in love with it.

“I think if you take it off the set list, Hill will have your head,” Bucky laughed. “I haven’t seen that woman so excited to play a bass line in a long ass time.”

Pepper laughed. “Okay, someone call the kids.”

Bucky fumbled for his phone and pulled them all up on video chat.

“ _Hi Mama_ ,” Annabeth grinned and turned the camera slightly so that they could see Marie sitting right next to her.

“ _Hi Auntie Pep, are Uncle Bucky and Uncle Tony there_?”

“No,” Tony popped his head into frame. “We’re pod people.”

“ _I got Dad out of the room quick, but before they come back, can someone order me his hair gel that he likes? I want to surprise him for his birthday,_ ” Marie said quickly.

More than anything else, the phone calls home each night were what grounded the musicians, since none of the kids gave a _living fuck_ that they were rock stars.

“We’re on it, babu,” Bucky grinned at his niece and used the name only she got.

“Are Cormac and Seth there?” Pepper asked the girls.

“ _Seth’s with Papa,_ ” Marie said slowly and Pepper’s breath caught.

 _“Marie,_ ” Annabeth scolded gently. She only ever got bossy with family, and Pepper bit her lip to keep from smiling at the familiar tone. “ _You’ll scare them. He’s fine, they’re just doing his math homework_.”

The conversation continued for a few more minutes before they heard Steve in the background. “ _Girls, I told you to call for me!_ ” His head popped into frame and he grinned at his friends. “ _You guys good?_ ”

“Yes,” Bucky said resolutely. “This is right and it’s time.”

“ _Well, we’re all watching the livestream,_ ” Steve said, and turned the phone to show that the website was pulled up on the television. “ _Seth just finished his homework, Cormac is finishing now, and Thor is popping the popcorn. We’re ready._ ”

“Then we are too,” Pepper grinned just as Nat popped her head back in the door.

“Friends, it’s places.”

“Gotta go,” Tony addressed their family on screen.

“ _I love you all,_ ” Annabeth cried as Steve and Marie echoed her. The connection severed, Tony put his phone on Do Not Disturb and slipped it into his pocket - he’d take photos from stage at a few points in the evening.

“Showtime,” Bucky grinned at his spouses, grabbed their hands, and led them into their futures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Stony](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or [Stuckony](https://discord.gg/jtXcc3n) servers.  
> Oh! And FestiveFerret and I have a [fandom podcast](http://www.podonthesuit.com) if you're so inclined.
> 
>   
> 


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